


The journey of a thousand miles...(how does that go again?)

by concretebrush



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Short Drabbles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-04
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 04:09:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2255385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concretebrush/pseuds/concretebrush
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Assorted drabbles involving Skye and Grant Ward. Occasionally shippy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I don't need to be saved

Day 6

 

He knows it’s day 6 because he’s been scratching tally marks into the stone blocks of his jail cell. Idle, compulsive little lines. The totality of his now utterly meaningless life.

Six days without the comfort of knowing that somewhere, out there, John Garrett is waiting to give him another order.

This is a terrifying new world and Grant doesn’t know how to live in it.

 

On the sixth day, he is brought into interrogation.

Skye walks in.

There is a determined set to her lips and a hard glint in her eyes.

He looks at her. Eyes roaming where hands can’t.

Across her brow, through matted hair, over bruise-colored eyelids and pale lips, sunken cheeks.

She looks unhurt, and a silent breath he didn’t know he had been holding whooshes out.

After he was thrown into a holding cell, he had overheard the guard on the walkie talkie discussing with another man that the situation Coulson’s team was facing was looking dire.

He had been so afraid for Skye, because monster that he is, he still can’t eradicate his own weakness.

 

Skye pulls out the chair facing him with barely hidden anger.

There’s an aggressive sort of jerkiness that accompanies her movements.

“I’m here to get what you know about Hydra.”

Ward shifts. He had thought Coulson would be the one doing the honors. He didn’t want Skye to see him like this.

“I want to talk to Coulson.”

Skye all but snarls, “Traitors don’t get what they want. You’ll talk to me or to the walls in solitary.”

“Fine,” Ward sighs, “Tell me where to start.” It is a defeated, resigned sound that escapes his mouth.

“Let’s start at the beginning. Tell me how you met Garrett, and how you started at Hydra.”

And so he does.

It takes almost two hours, and a small part of him realizes he adds extra details to keep her with him a little longer. He weaves a rich tale of broken homes and broken bones, and heartache. But ultimately, this is a tale of survival. And somewhere in between the physical abuse he endured at the hands of his brother and parents, and the Hydra boot camp, he sees something in Skye’s eyes click.

Survivors, like wolves, recognize their own.


	2. All that glitters...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AU-ish. Ward hasn't been revealed as Hydra yet.

“I swear this is part of the plan.”

Ward looked at her skeptically.

Coulson had pulled a slightly uncharacteristic play, and briefed each team member individually. This way each person would only know what “they had to know.” And nothing more. He was running out of time for his precious trust games and although Coulson tried to keep his team from figuring out that he suspected a traitor was in their midst, the single person info sessions weren’t very subtle.

Agent Grant Ward’s eye twitched.

“Are you sure I need to wear tear-away pants and that-” he waved his hand at the gold thong lying innocently on said pants, “-thing? For the mission?”

The air quotes were palpable.

“Am I going undercover as a stripper? And if so, why wouldn’t Coulson have told me? The only thing I know was that I was to be a server at a restaurant!” exclaimed Ward.

“We-ell, it’s kinda a restaurant, yeah. It’s a restaurant which sources its staff from strip clubs? I'm not really sure. Coulson was afraid you’d psych yourself out about it if you knew too far beforehand.”

“He should have known I would’ve done it if he just told me. I am a _professional._ ” Ward looked a little hurt.

Skye groaned. “Look, we have less than twenty minutes till showtime, and I bet you don’t even know how to work tear-away pants. I think you’ll need to practice. So if you would please hurry it up, that’d be great.”

Ward surveyed the pitiful looking stack of humiliation devices masquerading as clothing.

A leather tie was curled haphazardly around the thong.

“Alright...uh...where’s the shirt? Did Coulson forget a shirt?”

“You are not the expert in this scenario! Who knows more about strip clubs? You or Coulson?” Skye started tapping her fingers in binary on her thigh. This happened whenever she was stressed or it seemed, whenever she argued with Ward these days.

Ward blanched a little at the question, “Don't make me bleach my brain, _please_."

Ward paused for a bit then started, a bit more tentatively than before, "But don’t people usually start off with a shirt?”

“Don’t argue, Robot. You’re going bare-chested,” and then Skye mumbled under her breath, barely audible to Ward from across the room, “Thank goodness he’s hot, otherwise this whole thing would’ve fallen through.”

Ward was a little puzzled but didn’t question it. He trusted Skye. And Coulson. ( _And_ , he thought with a twinge of guilt, they trusted him.) Skye and Coulson wouldn’t do this just to mess with him…would they?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a cheap ending I'm sorry  
> & I might continue this but as I have little to no experience with strip clubs/strip restaurants I don't think that'll happen anytime soon.


End file.
